Improvement in rails for railroads



-UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HORACE RESLEY, OF CUMBERLAND, MARYLAND.

IMPROVEMENT IN RAILS FOR RAILROADS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 42,875. dattd May 24, 1864.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, HORACE REsLEY, of Cumberland, in the county of Alleghany and State of Maryland, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement on Rails for Railroads; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters and marks tn recu.

My improvement relates to the T and U rails. As heretofore constructed, the liange of these rails extends throughout the length of the rail, an impression existing tl at such lianges are necessary to enable the rail to resist lateral pressure and bending.

My improvement consists in convefting or divesting so much of the flanges ofthe rail as lies between the cross-ties from the sides of the bottom of the rail to and incorporating them with the body of the rail.

In carrying out my invention the rail may be formed, as it is now usual to make the T and U rails, by passing the bar out of which the rail is made through a succession ot' rollers, and, while the rail is in a heated state, cutting the lianges transversely near each end, leaving only so much tlange as will give an end bearing, and then passing the rail through such other rollers as will swage the flange within the body of the U-rail or against the sides of the T-rail, as the one or the other rail may be the subject of the improvement; or the rails may be made by passing the bar through such series of rollers as will form the body of the rail as herein stated, with the iianges at the ends only for bearings. As this manner of forming rails is well-known,

'n in if ,3 is a bottom or reversed view of one end and a small portion ot' the U-rail as made undir my improvement.

By my improvement more-strength will Le given to the body of the rail without increasing its weight, or at least materially so, and lamination will be prevented. The rail, being strengthened by the change of the iron from the lianges, allows the cross-ties to be placed farther apart than as now placed with the usual rail, and thus a saving be effected. The cavity ofthe U-rail can be iilled up with wood and iron or entirely with wood, or at such in tervals or points as may be regarded useful.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

Constructing rails for railroads substantially in the manner and for the purposes herein recited.

This specilication signed this 2d day of December, 1863.

HORACE RESLEY.

Witnesses:

J. J. MCIIENRY, C. L. HOBLITZELL. Y 

